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CERN scientists 'break the speed of light'
The Telegraph ^ | Sept. 22, 2011 | Uncredited

Posted on 09/22/2011 6:57:08 PM PDT by danielmryan

Scientists said on Thursday they recorded particles travelling faster than light - a finding that could overturn one of Einstein's fundamental laws of the universe.

Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the international group of researchers, said that measurements taken over three years showed neutrinos pumped from CERN near Geneva to Gran Sasso in Italy had arrived 60 nanoseconds quicker than light would have done.

"We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing," he said. "We now want colleagues to check them independently."

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: einstein; electrogravitics; lightspeed; physics; relativity; scientism; stringtheory
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To: UCANSEE2
...it's just that light has slowed down

Oh...you mean the speed of dark.

61 posted on 09/22/2011 8:57:41 PM PDT by tarpit
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To: Paradox
[I suspect an explanation will be found that does not upset Einstein.]
 
If Space is to Energy as Energy is to Mass, then Distance (and speed C) becomes relative to E within the inertial frame(s) where it is observed.

62 posted on 09/22/2011 9:05:23 PM PDT by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: danielmryan

Of all the particles known and unknown, why should photons be the fastest?


63 posted on 09/22/2011 9:08:54 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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Comment #64 Removed by Moderator

To: Conan the Librarian

A friend of mine tipped me to this blog’s discussion of a very interesting book that I subsequently read.

http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2008/12/frank-tiplers-god-of-multiverse-part-i.html

and here’s the book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385514255

I expect that CERN has made an error, but who knows?


65 posted on 09/22/2011 9:54:13 PM PDT by GEC (We're not drilling in ANWR because....)
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To: danielmryan

ping


66 posted on 09/22/2011 10:06:10 PM PDT by Blind Eye Jones
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To: twister881

“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news which obeys its own special laws.” Douglas Adams


67 posted on 09/22/2011 10:06:17 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: tarpit

It slowed you down enough that you posted twice before you could SEE that you already posted once.


68 posted on 09/22/2011 10:09:00 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: danielmryan

Color me skeptical. Lots of things travel faster than the speed of light, if you are not in a vacuum, and there’s no vacuum between Switzerland and Italy that I know of. So, how can they really make any significant conclusions from this experiment?


69 posted on 09/22/2011 10:09:47 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: danielmryan
"It's real news for any physics buff, provided it's confirmed."

Are you kidding me?

If confirmed and proven, this would be like finding out the earth is round.

It Is Fundamental To everything We Think We Know!

70 posted on 09/22/2011 10:11:49 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Glenn

It’s not even a violation of Albert’s mathematics for something to travel faster than the speed of light outside a vacuum, so I am still wondering what the hubbub is about here.


71 posted on 09/22/2011 10:14:27 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: SunkenCiv
Yes sir.

Would you please put me on the String Theory ping list?

72 posted on 09/22/2011 10:16:55 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Morpheus2009

It’s not referring to the speed of light in a vacuum:

“To reach Gran Sasso, the neutrinos pushed out from a special installation at CERN - also home to the Large Hadron Collider probing the origins of the universe - have to pass through water, air and rock.”

So, as far as I can tell, they’ve discovered nothing you can’t learn from an elementary physics textbook.


73 posted on 09/22/2011 10:21:11 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Paradox

The experiment was NOT done in a vacuum. From the end of the article:

“To reach Gran Sasso, the neutrinos pushed out from a special installation at CERN - also home to the Large Hadron Collider probing the origins of the universe - have to pass through water, air and rock.”

So, what’s the big deal? Am I missing something?


74 posted on 09/22/2011 10:22:41 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Morpheus2009
"Well, there are plenty of cases in which particles can go faster than light, in the sense that in certain mediums, neutrinos can pass through without interaction while photons do not."

They aren't talking about neutrinos getting to the detector faster than some particular photons going through a medium. They are talking about C, the speed of light in a vacuum.

75 posted on 09/22/2011 10:23:56 PM PDT by mlo
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To: Lancey Howard

“Of all the particles known and unknown, why should photons be the fastest?”

Cuz they ate their Wheaties!


76 posted on 09/22/2011 10:24:28 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman

A vacuum has nothing to do with it. They are talking about neutrinos going faster than C, the theoretical speed of light. Not faster than some photons that were racing alongside.


77 posted on 09/22/2011 10:25:55 PM PDT by mlo
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To: mlo

Well, this part of the article suggests they ARE comparing it to the speed of light in the medium:

“Light would have covered the distance in around 2.4 thousandths of a second, but the neutrinos took 60 nanoseconds - or 60 billionths of a second - less than light beams would have taken.”

Might just be a poorly written article though.


78 posted on 09/22/2011 10:27:10 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman
"It’s not even a violation of Albert’s mathematics for something to travel faster than the speed of light outside a vacuum, so I am still wondering what the hubbub is about here."

Not correct. The speed limit found in relativity has nothing to do with travelling in a vacuum. Nothing with mass can accelerate to C, vacuum or not.

79 posted on 09/22/2011 10:28:39 PM PDT by mlo
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To: Boogieman
"Well, this part of the article suggests they ARE comparing it to the speed of light in the medium:"

No, they're just talking about the distance divided by C. This wasn't a race between photons and neutrinos. It's just a matter of how fast the neutrinos were moving.

BTW, I suspect a measurement problem somewhere rather than a violation of relativity. But it would certainly be interesting if this turned out to be real.

80 posted on 09/22/2011 10:31:44 PM PDT by mlo
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